how much are you feeding and what are you feeding? What's the dogs feeding schedule? what's the dogs excerise routine? how many treats do you give in the day? how many table scraps do you give.... how much do the kids/friends/family members give? ........ all of these things contibute to weight gain.

This iscompletely reiterating what everyone else has said. except one thing. Take a look at the bag of food you're currently feeding... on the back it gives a recommended daily allowance. it will read something like 1 1/2 - 2 cups (this will vary depending on the dogs weight) The measurements listed are total for the day. If you have a highly active dog you'd want to feed the larger portion, if you're dog's less active or (in your case) over weight, you'll do the lesser serving suggestion or even slightly lesser than that. And remember to keep weighing your dog weekly/bi-weekly and adjust feeding when and as weight changes.

Most dogs don't need a reduced calorie food (honestly). Like humans, most of the time it's a matter of eating healthy portions and increasing excerise.

My suggestion would be stay on the same food, just reduce how much you feed and start with some evening and/or morning walks... not only increasing your dogs health, but also yours! (the added perk of having a dog) And if there's a problem getting the weight off that way, then try a reduced calorie.

So, did the vet tell you how much he thinks your dog is over weight by? What's the breed? what's the current weight? Have you checked AKC.org for what the breed standard for weight is (obviously not all dogs fit in the breed standard mold, but, it will give you an idea of about where you should be)

Keep us up-to-date on how you're doin and how the pup's doin!